I don't think either one ever had a mystical connection to God. I do appreciate the beauty of their rituals and singing and I think it helps in discovering that mystical connection yourself.

Protestantism lost its power when it was liberated from persecution. They no longer had anything to prove, so they decayed rapidly. The ability to read the Bible was like opening Pandora's box, and most of what came out was just too much for most people. So the stories became flattened, easy digestible, and lost the depth of symbolism. I don't think I've ever found a verse that didn't have at least two ways to understand it. Not that I've looked exhaustively... But you suggest a deeper meaning to people and they think you're crazy. The same person will then insist that every story is literally true, which is also crazy, when divorced of its symbolic meaning. So the result is, mainline Christianity is now mythology.

The political churches decayed slower, but they got a head start. Maryology is useful for teaching women and teaching tolerance and virtues, but it is not present before the churches were gathered together by threat of violence under the state of Constantine. What Maryology really represents is the cult of Isis, which went into hiding when Christianity took over. Its in line with the other saints, which are roughly analogous to the archetypal gods they replaced. Pray to them if you want ; I'm not going to judge whether a person's disposition to an ideal is idolotry - but to use them as an intercessor to the intercessor is absurd, imo.

Well... I criticize everything. Hope it doesn't hurt, haha